Our neighbour in the North and East persists with its aggressive posture that’s basically aimed at making it to be the most dominating power in the world. And whether it was Galwan earlier or Tawang now, our bravehearts are always there to protect India’s sovereignty, notwithstanding risk to their own lives. Someone has posted on Linked a video that’s purportedly covering the day before yesterday’s skirmish between the two forces. Expectedly, it has attracted attention of everyone and comments are mostly patriotic.
My firm view is that in the matters of the National security and those concerning acts by our armed forces, we should avoid creating controversies and instead stand behind them and our Government wholeheartedly and unquestioningly. In such matters, we should not allow our idiosyncrasies to come in the way and exhibit patriotism as “ One Indian”. We shall all survive and flourish if our nation is secured and strong.
Salute to our brave hearts guarding our borders on all the fronts against very aggressive neighbours and terrorists! Our thoughts are always with them whether action happens in Kargil, Galwan or Tawang!
At the beginning of the tournament, soccer fans were betting on Argentina, Brazil, England and France to be the likely top 4 teams with one Latin American and one European team to be playing the finals for the coveted cup. Alas, the fans and experts were only 50% right and only Argentina and France could make it to the last 4, other 2 being absolute dark horses – Croatia and Morocco. No body could have in his or her wildest dreams thought of Morocco or Croatia making it thus far!
And look at the GOATs – Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Neymar of Brazil, who were expected to win laurels for themselves and their respective country! Luckily another GOAT, Lionel Messi is still in the fray to achieving lasting glory for himself as also his country.
The tournament has thrown up new icons and new heroes – Mordic, Mbappe, Boufal, Hakimi, the names that were relatively unknown before the start of the tournament.
Semifinals are commencing now and while the general expectation is Argentina vs France final, going by the trend so far, any other permutation is possible, the most astonishing would be a Croatia vs Morocco final. Morocco has already won the laurels by being the first African team to have reached so far.
I have always heard that cricket is the game of glorious uncertainties. What about soccer?
Had I not superannuated, I would have completed 28 years in Axis Bank today. I joined Axis Bank, then known as UTI Bank on 5/12/94. At that time, it had just two branches – the first one at Ahmedabad that was inaugurated by Dr Manmohan Singh the then Finance Minister of India on 2nd April 1994 and the second one at Fort, Mumbai that had started operating just a few days back in the last week of November 1994. The central office at Cuffe Parade had just one small portion functional, the rest of the premises being under civil work.
I was fortunate to be part of the journey that saw Axis Bank getting transformed from humble beginnings to a financial conglomerate and a behemoth that it is today!
Therefore, 5th December will always remain a very special date for me and while my journey at Axis might have come to an end, I have no doubt that Axis will continue its great journey ahead, growing from strength to strength and celebrating many jubilees in the process.
Ukraine is putting up a brave resistance against the mighty Russian military power. When the entire world seems to be in recession and facing unprecedented inflation, India, which has already become 5th largest economy in the world, is comparatively much stabler and safer. We witnessed some super display in T20 world cup tournament concluded recently by minnows like Afghanistan and Ireland. And look what’s happening in World Cup soccer! Mighty Germany, the pre tournament favourites, is already knocked out, not being able to make it to quarter finals,; ditto Belgium, another soccer powerhouse. In fact, the balance seems to be shifting from South America and Europe to Africa and Asia. What high quality football is being played by Asian powers – Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia and African nations – Morocco and Senegal!
What the above shows is that the world is changing and there are no clear winners in any field – politics, trade, sports, arms, development etc. in fact, everything is in grey zone and there’s no clear black or white! In such a rapidly changing world, nobody can afford to remain smug or complacent but make continuous efforts . The learning is that whether it’s a nation, city or any individual – all need to keep on evolving and improving as only the best will succeed in the long run!
In the year 1977, a Hindi movie attracted the attention of cinema lovers due to its unique content. The main protagonist, Sanjeev Kumar, had sakshatkar (realisation in person) of Lord Krishna and the movie had some very interesting conversations between the lord and his subject. While Sanjeev Kumar had already established himself as a thespian by then, cinema goers, in particular, loved this slim, soft spoken actor, who essayed the role of Lord Krishna, with the perpetual look of divinity on his face. He was none other than Vikram Gokhale,
As per newspapers, his first Hindi movie was Parwana, a thriller starring Amitabh in his early days. And he continued his long innings in Hindi as well as Marathi cinema by playing number of characters, all with aplomb and conviction. He was also associated with Marathi theatre.
He breathed his last in Pune on Friday, but he’d be remembered by cinema lovers for his contribution that was varied and significant.
When one feels short on inspiration, Mahatria’s thoughts come handy. Received today morning the following:
Renunciation is metaphorically similar to that of a man climbing a ladder.
He steps off the lower rungs of the ladder because of his inclination to step into the higher rungs.
He is not giving up the lower rungs.
He is, as a matter of fact, going up to the higher rungs.
And we shamelessly preach renunciation to our elders as giving up of all worldly things and indulgence in prayers and kirtans. Why our septuagenarian, octogenarian and even nonagenarian parents can’t enjoy a movie at multiplex, a dinner at a sit in restaurant or a drink, if they so desire? Why renunciation is confused with leaving all worldly things rather than enjoying everything albeit without attachment to such things.
I like Mahatria because his thoughts are evolved and not cliched.
So we have a new T20 cricket world champion in England, who lost their league match to lowly ranked Ireland. Other finalist Pakistan started even more pathetically losing the first two close games to arch rival India and Zimbabwe. Favourites India lost to South Africa and just about managed to scrape through Bangladesh. Cricketing minnows such as Netherlands, Afghanistan, Ireland troubled the big teams.
One thing is clear from the World Cup fixtures this year that there’s no first among equals and on their day, any team can defeat any other team. Some look strong on paper, other appears tough mentally. Some bat deep, while some other has deadly bowling attack. But there’s no clear favourite in this clamour and while some of the established cricketing nations like Srilanka and West Indies have already apparently hit a nadir, many of the emerging teams are going to throw their gauntlet as serious contenders.
European nations such as Germany, Holland, Spain, Poland started playing hockey much later but along with Australia, these countries seem to be lording over hockey supremacy that was once the domain of Asian countries India, Pakistan and Malaysia. Let’s strategise and work harder to protect our cricketing domain. 130 crore cricket loving Indians deserve a better show by their beloved Team India that needs to be more predictable and consistent. While they played superlatively well against Pakistan, their meek surrender to England in semis was rather heart wrenching!
The above is the opening phrase from a song from a popular Bollywood blockbuster, Sharabi, in which the star of the century, Amitabh Bachchan glorifies the virtues of friendship, especially when four of them get together to have fun! ( four is only symbolic to give poetic twist)
The above song comes to mind as I reminisce the gathering of old friends last night. I had a rather lonesome and dreary week and to top up it, it happened to be my wife’s birthday, who for some important reasons had to be in Delhi, thereby breaking an age old tradition of two of us spending our birthdays together. I didn’t want the gloom to overwhelm me on an auspicious day and so I thought of arranging a quick get together of old friends and making some simple yet tasty food for them with my own hands.
And all these friends, who incidentally happened to be my ex office colleagues to, were a revelation that was quite contrary to their personality in office! Their latent talent of singing, dancing, joking, witticism was all at display in what turned out to be a memorable evening that celebrated my wife’s birthday in her absence. And for a moment, we all forgot our worries, concerns, apprehensions, frustrations to became gay abandon.
A special mention must be made of a friend who recently underwent an elaborate cardiac procedure and was not on my original invite list, fearing he might get carried away seeing others indulging in food and drinks. It was a pleasant surprise to see him to be back in his earlier best as he celebrated the “all clear” given to him by his attending doctor.
To quote the opening lines of the song from which title of this write up is taken, which are:
जहाँ चार यार मिल जायें ,वहीं रात हो गुलज़ार जहाँ चार यार महफ़िल रँगीन जमे ... महफ़िल रँगीन जमे, दौर चले धूम मचे नज़र देखे नये चमतकार, जहाँ चार यार...
The above is loosely translatable as:
When and wherever friends meet
The place becomes a garden full of sweet roses
It’s indeed a great party time
Everyone drinks but no one forces!
Instead of individually responding to their thanks messages for the evening, I thought of penning this blog to put on record my gratitude to their esteemed presence at my place.
Today’s banking has radically changed from what we used to do when we joined banking sector in 80s. Banks have not only automated their accounting and processes, but they are also using advanced tools such as artificial intelligence, robotics and business intelligence by using complex algorithms on big data available to them.
Many young bankers. who join banks expecting to be sitting on counters and executing transactions are sorely disenchanted when they observe that all the activities and transactions such as account opening, issuance of cheque books, updating of passbooks, addition/deletion of names of the account holders, handling of instruments such as demand drafts, letters of credit, bank guarantees etc are handled from the back end by back offices and that their primary activity is business development and cross selling. Many join banks in non sales roles because selling is not their forte but very soon they learn that there’s no escaping from selling!
However, the word cross selling needs further elaboration as it entails three parts – selling of the bank’s own products such as credit card, debit card, travel card, fixed deposit, recurring deposit, home loan, auto loan, personal loan etc, up selling like offering higher variant of Savings account, debit card, credit card to an existing customer and selling of third party products mainly insurance and mutual funds.
The first form of selling is eminently understandable and it must be encouraged. Banks should deepen their engagement with their customers by offering other products that they have in their bouquet lest the customer may go elsewhere and the customer may be lost to a competitor. The second form viz. Up selling is also not totally undesirable, if the up sell is offered to the right customer and not to just let an undeserving customer use freebies that generally come tagged with higher variants. Later on when the customer is charged for having availed of freebies without matching conduct, there’s noise, commotion and complaint.
The advantage of the above two forms of selling is that banks offer their own products and the staff is well seized of their adjunct features. The chances of mis selling are zero in the first form and stray in the second form.
The problem arises when the banks try and aggressively push third party products under bancassurance arrangement with insurance companies and and also mutual funds to their customers. First of all, the Bank staff have very basic and sometimes absolutely no knowledge of these products , but they are under pressure to generate leads. Although, banks have robust processes of seeking customer’s feedback on the insurance product before actual issuance of the policy, many a time these processes are shortchanged, especially when the customer is home maker, geriatric or inadequately qualified. Also, return on MFs are linked to market and when returns on these investments are not what the customer was assured of by bank staff, there’s noise and complaint.
My take is that banks should have full suite of all the products in their bouquet, but exercise discretion and caution in the third form of selling. Instead of front life staff, virtual RMs, RAs ( insurance company staff deputed to the bancassurance partner ) and dedicated specialised RMs should be encouraged and all necessary disclosures and information be shared with potential customers on their registered mail ids and banks’ websites. Staff will be relieved of undue pressure of incessantly pushing products of which they have scant knowledge or aptitude to sell and customer will buy the product required in his/ her own discretion, killing all the noise around this glaring problem of mis selling.
On the auspicious occasion of Gurupurub, I received the above message on social media that beautifully sums the gist of Guru Nanak’s teaching – try your best, remember almighty’s name and take care of the needs of the deprived!
Indeed we all know that nothing can be achieved without hard work and not withstanding any rituals, there is a creator of this universe. The teaching of Guru Nanak on sharing with needy persons is seen everywhere every day – in Covid times so many homeless and jobless could survive due to langars and it’s not one off phenomenon! It’s happening in war torn Ukraine ( a restaurateur is distributing free meals every day like a langar), and across the world, where workers, labourers and other poor people can have their daily two meals in a nearby Gurudwara. Just opposite my Andheri residence, Four Bungalows Gurudwara is running langars twice a day, feeding hundreds hungry folks every day!
I bow in obeisance to Guru Nanak on this Prakash Utsav.
Arvind Arya blog 